Martin out on bail, awaiting court dates

Having met his bail conditions, Malakwa’s Colin Martin is back in the community, awaiting two separate court dates for drug-related charges.

Martin was in custody for extradition proceedings being held in the Lower Mainland in relation to a cross-border drug smuggling operation. According to staff at the Salmon Arm court registry, Martin was able to meet all the conditions required for bail and is now out on his own recognizance.

Martin is scheduled to stand trial on the extradition case in September. He was indicted in Washington State in 2009, along with Sean William Doak, James Gregory Cameron and Adam Christian Serrano, after U.S. and Canadian authorities made arrests in a drug operation where marijuana and ecstasy were allegedly flown stateside in exchange for cocaine.

Doak has since been extradited and, in May, Serrano entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute controlled substances.

The plea agreement, filed in the U.S. district court in Seattle, states the defendant (Serrano) admits being guilty to having “knowingly entered into an agreement with co-defendants Sean William Doak, James Gregory Cameron, Colin Hugh Martin and several others, known and unknown, the object of which was to possess with the intent to re-distribute illegal drugs, including marijuana, MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine,” and that Serrano and his co-conspirators arranged for loads of these drugs to be shipped across the U.S./Canada borders, often in helicopters.

Serrano is expected to be sentenced in October.

Martin is also scheduled to stand trial for drug-related charges resulting from a police raid at his Malakwa home in July 2010, when authorities uncovered a marijuana grow operation in a bunker underneath a neighbouring workshop.